World Cup 2022: battle lines have been drawn between France and Argentina

How to deal with Lionel Messi will be one of the key questions for France, just like how to deal with Kylian Mbappe will be one of the key questions for Argentina.

The two stars face off in the 2022 World Cup finals as Argentina and France fight for honors.

It has to be a collective effort. You can’t have someone man-marking Messi and following him everywhere on the pitch because Messi will eat you alive if you do that.

I guess the idea will be to ensure he gets as little of the ball as possible but, again, that is very difficult.

Maybe France are slightly better in terms of their structure. It still feels like when Argentina play it is like ‘give the ball to Messi and we will see what happens’. But Julian Alvarez is in form, so is Alexis Mac Allister, so they also have other top players.

Meanwhile,

The dream is over but there was no sadness, just sheer pride for the Atlas Lions.

Morocco have lit up this World Cup with an unexpected run to the semi-finals, where their hopes of a shock triumph were crushed by defending champions France.

Walid Regragui’s men had made history by becoming the first African and Arab nation to reach this stage of the competition, but ultimately they came up short.

Theo Hernandez’s goal after five minutes was the worst possible start for Morocco and substitute Randal Kolo Muani added a second late on as France set up a meeting with Argentina in Sunday’s final.

“We pulled out the stops and gave everything,” said Regragui. “We did cause them problems and that is quite an achievement.

“My players gave a very good image of the team, a showcase of their quality. It is difficult to take, they wanted to rewrite history books.

“You can’t win a World Cup by miracles, only by hard work – and that is what we will keep doing.”